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Ogres
Ogres are one of the original races to populate Krynn. Once a beautiful and highly advanced people with a culture unrivaled throughout Krynn, they were once favored above all others by Takhisis. Now they are cast down and despised by most of the people of Krynn. Early History The people who became known as Ogres were originally called the High Ogres or the Irda. They were highly intelligent with a rich culture and advanced society. They were a strong, magical race, tall and handsome with deep blue skin color and pointed ears. The Irda had excelled in all things, art, buildings, magic, and even governance. Even the poorest of the Irda would seem like nobles to the rest of the world and they all had magical abilities that were unrivaled by anyone else. They were known far and wide, considered to be superior to other younger races. However, all of their success and all their gifts led them to become arrogant and disdainful of other people. Rather than use their knowledge and magically abilities to enlighten others, they instead used it to enslave other races they deemed primitive and weak, most notably humans. The lack of want or need led their society to become complacent and decadent, as they began a slow, steady decline into cruelty and depravity, depending on slaves to do virtually everything that they considered to be beneath them. As the Irda began to indulge in dark pleasures and violence and more and more reliant on slaves for their daily needs, their once great society began to fall apart as various factions fought among themselves for power and dominance. Even their once great debate halls became gladiatorial arenas, where blood was spilled in the name of entertainment and vengence. The final chapter of the Irda came when Human slaves rose up against their slave masters, slaughtering countless High Ogres, their cities destroyed, and the ogres were cast down, cursed by Paladine. They devolved into monstrous creatures, a visual expression of the corrupted nature of a once great people. Of the Irda, only a small faction remained unchanged. Having learned compassion for others, they rejected Takhisis, turned to Mishakal and fled to the Dragon Isles. The rest became brutish monsters, cruel and vicious, a reflection of their true nature. After The Fall Most Ogres of Krynn are vicious, mean, and cruel. While many seem brutish and unintelligent to most other races, they can be crafty and cunning. The Ogres are well known for slavery, and have made numerous enemies of other races because of this. Humans and Minotaurs are among those whose hatred for Ogres is strongest. Having lost their abilities to create anything, the Ogres rely totally on slave labor, raids, and trade with other evil races for most everything. Though much of their civilization was destroyed, they remained in the Khalkist mountains and the area around Blöde until the area was almost completely overrun with Ogres, when they began to migrate to other areas that had been originally part of the Irda empire. First was the plains, where they formed the nation of Kern, based out of the city Kernen, which is actually the remains of the once great ancient city of Garantha. While there is some animosity and rivalry between the two nations, they still trade and interact with each other. Outside of these two nations, there is a small community in Icewall, and there was once one in Taladas, though those in Taladas have been almost wiped out by the Minotaur Armies of The Imperial League. The Ogres of Kern are more nomadic and tribal, the nation being led by a Grand Khan. The Ogres of Blöde live in cities and towns, many of which are built on the ruins of the old Irda cities. Though rare, the nations have come together under a Khan, but this is the exception rather than the rule. The biggest difficulty in this was the land between the two nations was Blödehelm, which was occupied by human warlords. Though relations were tense, pacts and agreements were signed and for the most part there was little conflict between the humans of the plateau and the Ogres of the mountains. Ogres are large, and powerfully built with greenish to yellow skin, around 8 feet tall, with dark hair and large tusks protruding from their lower jaws. While Ogres are physically strong, they have since lost their magical abilities and tend to be not very intelligent. While there are a few subspecies of Ogres that are quite different from the common Ogre, they are very rare. The Dragon Overlords While the Ogres and most of their lands were relatively unaffected by the events of this time, Blödehelm was greatly affected by the magic of the Dragon Overlord, Onysablet, who turned it into a massive swamp and destroyed the human kingdoms that had existed there for centuries. After Onysablet was destroyed by Dhamon Grimwulf, the land still remains a massive swamp, however it is receding somewhat. Though Ogres dwell there now, having previously been allied with the Dragon Overlords, the land is at least partially populated by remnants of Onysablet's minions and her surviving experiments. The Time of the Titans After the events of The Chaos War and the end of the Age of Dispair, at the beginning of the Age of Mortals, the Ogres were ruled by the Ogre Titans and also later by the Titan's defacto chosen ruler, Golgren, a half breed of Ogre and Elven lineage. The Titans themselves were giant, perverse versions of their former Irda ancestors. The Ogre Titans themselves were created by an Ogre-Magi, Dauroth, during the early days of of the War of Souls before Takhisis revealed herself as the One God. Dauroth was given full knowledge of the spells and ceremony in a vision from Takhisis, appearing as a female Titan, which would change normal Ogres into Titans, through a dark ritual which required large amounts of fresh Elven blood. Once they were changed, they gained a considerable amount of intelligence, beauty and some innate magical powers, similar to the ancient Irda, but were taller, physically stronger than normal Ogres, had shark-like pointed teeth, black talons on their fingers and one on each elbow. However, if they were unable to constantly imbibe themselves with this elixir of elf blood, they would degenerate into a creature far more disgusting than what they were before the change. As the War of Souls progressed, and the Titans began to increase their numbers, they had began numerous restoration projects on many of the crumbling ancient structures of the ancient Irda. Dauroth, and his inner circle, The Black Talon, a group of powerful mage Titans, began to exert more influence upon the Ogre Nations. The Titans in general tried to rule from the shadows, but lacked the ability and trust of Ogre leaders to enact truly significant changes and motivate Ogre society to unify and move beyond the point of being semi-autonomous clans and tribes, as Ogre society had been since their fall. In realizing this, Dauroth needed a strong ruler who could unify and inspire the complacent Ogre society. He eventually noticed the rise of an ambitious young half breed, the son of a minor Ogre chieftan and his elf slave, named Guyvir. Guyvir, who later renamed himself Golgren, was considerably more intelligent than most of his kin, and had both the strength and character to further cement the plans of the Titans to restore the Ogres to their once lofty positions as the true rulers of Krynn. With the backing of the Titans, and more specifically, Dauroth, Golgren began a meteoric rise to power, eventually acting as liaison between the new power in the Minotaur Empire, Lady Nephera and her Forerunner cult. This alliance, though short lived, resulted in Ogres once again enslaving Minotaurs as well as engaging in some joint military operations. However, this would eventually end as the Minotaurs became aware of the evil machinations of Nephera and her willingness to enslave Minotaurs to Ogres. One such slave, Faros es-Kalin, the last descendant of the deposed former Emperor Chot, freed himself, cut off Golgren's right hand in a duel, and eventually returned to become emperor himself. The Titans ambitions as well as their needed of fresh Elven blood led them to raise a large army to attack the combined forces of Qualinesti and Silvanesti that were marching on Sanction. The Ogres had surrounding the Elves in the valley, but were routed by Metallic Dragons that had returned to Krynn once again. With the end of the War of Souls marked by the fall of Takhisis, the end of Lady Nephera and the Forerunner cult, the Minotaurs and Ogres resumed hostilities, however the Minotaurs were too busy repairing their fractured empire as well as occupying Silvenost to enact any retribution. So Golgren and the Titans returned to Kern and Blöde, respectively, to gather their forces and plan their next move, certain that it was only a matter of time before outside forces moved against them. Category:Races